The passage of time is a mystical thing. These spells work to speed or slow time for yourself.

If you want time to go by more quickly, then cast the speed time spell. What this spell does is slows down the passage of time in a small area around yourself, thus making the rest of the world appear to go by faster.

This is a difficult concept to understand, but think of it like this. A minute is a minute is a minute. So in order to speed up time for you, a real minute must seem like 30 seconds to yourself. So time around you slows so that while the rest of the world lives for 60 seconds, you only live through 30 seconds, and time appears to go twice as fast.